WorldSBK Navarra Race 2 Results | Razgatlioglu levels up to Rea with sixth win

Toprak Razgatlioglu successfully turned the formbook around by collecting his sixth win of the 2021 WorldSBK Championship season at Navarra, pulling him level with Jonathan Rea at the summit of the standings.

The Turkish rider played a watching brief to his two title rivals in Race 1 and the Superpole Race with a pair of lonely third place results, but came out fighting for Race 2 as the trio of title contenders - Scott Redding included - once again squared up to one another.

Earning pole position by virtue of his Superpole Race win earlier in the day, Redding didn’t waste the opportunity to grab the hole-shot, followed by Yamaha duo Alvaro Locatelli and Razgatlioglu through the opening turns.

Buoyed by his rapid getaway, Locatelli attempted a pass for the lead at Turn 5 but got out of shape on the exit, shuffling down to fourth before a wayward Alex Lowes sent him wider still anyway.

With Lowes and Locatelli tripping over one another, it allowed the slow-starting Rea - who was only fifth down to Turn 1 - to gather himself in third place.

Up at the front, Razgatlioglu wasted no time in pouncing on Redding to prevent him escaping away on the Ducati, slicing through at Turn 7 and putting the hammer down. Redding might have stood a chance of responding had he not almost lost the front of the Panigale at Turn 9 on lap two, a moment that cost him second to Rea.

Having failed to demonstrate sparkling pace in the earlier races, it was anticipated Razgatlioglu would soon have his hands full of Kawasaki too but the challenge from Rea never came, with the Turk snowballing his advantage while the defending champion came back under pressure from Redding.

With the ex-MotoGP rider regaining his momentum he slowly, slowly crept onto the rear of the Kawasaki ZX-10RR, announcing his intentions at the start of Lap 19 with a pass at Turn 1, only to run deep and allow a slick Rea to get the switch-back into Turn 2.

However, in what is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence for Rea this year, it would take a front-end slip at Turn 9 the following lap to unsettle Rea enough to allow Redding to sweep through before Turn 10.

Nevertheless, it was too late for Redding to do anything about Razgatlioglu, the Yamaha man picking up his sixth win and 16th podium of the season to go level on points with Rea, while Redding’s two wins and second place finish in Spain leaves him 38 points off the top spot.

The in-form Locatelli recovered to fourth place - his ninth top five finish in a row - ahead of a dogged Tom Sykes, who held off Lowes for fifth position.

On an anonymous weekend relative to Redding, Michael Ruben Rinaldi picked up his form in the final race of the weekend for seventh, getting the better of Michael van der Mark on the second BMW.

Alvaro Bautista ended his weekend with ninth as Axel Bassani rounded out the top ten.

The final points’ paying positions were occupied by Tito Rabat, Jonas Folger, Christophe Ponsson, Lucas Mahias and Leandro Mercado.

2021 WorldSBK Navarra, Spain | Race 2 RESULTS